Playoffs

Team: 2023-24 Toronto Maple Leafs

Initial Creation Date: Apr. 17, 2024

Published: Apr. 17, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Ideally, the McMann-Tavares-Marner line play as the main shutdown group against either of BOS top-6 lines, leaving the Matthews line for a middle-6 matchup and Nylander's for the weakest of the 3. Dewar-Kampf-Reaves has the chance to score one or two scrappy goals, but really their role is to stir things up and not lose their minutes against mainly bottom-6 matchups.

Keefe loves jacking up lines mid-game, so we could see lines like 88-91-16 for offence or 24-64-19 as a shutdown group. Realistically this team will only go as far as the core-4 guys take them, so lets just hope they can score consistently.

Ideally, Brodie gets into MAX 3 games, but we'll have to see with injuries. These pairings seem most likely, and probably the best.

It looks like the PP groups will be:

Tavares Bertuzzi
Nylander-Marner-Matthews Liljegren-McMann-Domi
Rielly McCabe

MAYBE we see Jarnkrok instead of McCabe, and maybe Rielly and Liljegren switch, but this is what seems most likely.

PK probably looks like this:

Kampf-Marner Dewar-Jarnkrok
Edmunson-McCabe Benoit-Boosh

With Nylander, Matthews, and Liljegren as the next guys up. It isn't stellar or anything, but it should hopefully get enough of the job done.

Overall, Toronto has the better team, but it's just about who shows up in the right moments, who capitalizes on their chances, and momentum. Toronto has to to play a full 3 periods if they want to win, which has been their Achilles heel this year.